Inspiration
by TintedElements
Summary: Written for a oneshot story prompt: What if Izaya knew Mikado from the past? - Written by AutzulFrost


Izaya grumbled as he trotted behind his parents obediently. The countryside made him sick. It was so detestable, so utterly boring. There were just too little of his beloved humans around and he wasn't even allowed to mess with the ones who were.

He stared up at the endlessly blue sky before his expression morphed into a distinct look of displeasure. He glared at the ground, each further step as unwilling as the last, somehow blaming his current situation on the soil he walked on.

His sisters' incessant giggles only served to further aggravate him though he managed not to complain about them. Complaining about them would only result in him getting house arrest and him getting house arrest would only result in him being locked in his room, because his parents would inevitably deem it unsafe for their 'little sweethearts' to be around him.

He hated being locked in his room.

As it were, he'd temporarily thrown aside his pride to beg them to come along. At least here there was a minute chance of him seeing something interesting. Izaya briefly wondered if it would have been wiser if he'd stayed back in Ikebukuro and tried picking the lock on his door.

They stopped in front of a house that looked vaguely familiar to him and his father shifted six year old Kururi in his arms so he could ring the doorbell. A woman with kind features eagerly opened the door and welcomed them in, fawning over how cute the twins were.

The Ryugamines were friends of the family. A family which Izaya felt he was not a part of. He couldn't even remember why he'd thought it was a good idea to escape the isolation of his room by agreeing to tag along _and_ be good. Nevertheless he slinked in after his parents and greeted the woman politely. Her husband was right behind her, greeting their guests with a smile.

"Ah! Izaya-kun, you've sure grown a lot! How old are you now again?" He asked and Izaya's eyes slid over and looked the man over briefly, before deciding he was not going to bother masking his annoyance.

"Fifteen." He answered and then promptly went back to tugging off his shoes in excruciating slowness.

"Izaya! Show a bit more respect will you?" His father demanded and then apologized to their host for his son's rude behaviour, saying that all teenagers had their rude phase.

The group moved to sit around a table in the dining room, already laden with tea and biscuits and all sorts of other snacks. Izaya merely sat glumly in his chair and watched as Mairu stuffed biscuit after biscuit into her mouth with her tiny hands.

He'd promised to be good, not happy; there was a difference.

"You have a boy around the twins' age, don't you?" The conversation around him was too loud to be blocked out by his thoughts.

"Oh yes, he's a year older though. We named him Mikado. I'd introduce you to him, but heaven knows that kid likes running around outside. He's fascinated by everything he sees!" The image of Shizu-chan beating up random people he'd bribed into fighting the teen with superhuman powers was interrupted.

"You let him run around outside on his own?" Izaya gave up plotting his next attack on Shizuo.

"He's not on his own, though the other boy's just around the same age. It's not dangerous around here, but we did tell him to return before the sky changed colours." Rusty coloured eyes glared at the brown substance in his cup that was way too sweet for his tastes.

"Oh, how nice! I wish we could let Mairu and Kururi out to explore nature like that! It just isn't safe enough in Ikebukuro for that." Izaya lifted his cup and gulped everything down and stood up noisily, getting the attention of all the adults around him and even managing to quieten his sisters for a moment.

"I need some fresh air." He mumbled and made his way outside, sliding on his shoes fifty times faster than he'd taken them off and leaving dumbfounded adults behind at the table.

"Teenagers..." He heard his mother say with a sigh as he closed the front door.

Izaya breathed in and was relieved. He absolutely hated the way his parents pretended that they were a happy family. Most of the time, he was alone at home with his sisters because his parents were on constant business trips. So often in fact, that at one point he had to drill the fact into Mairu's head that he wasn't their _daddy_.

Having nowhere to go and feeling sickened by the clear blue sky, the teen sat down on the porch and started plotting the next ordeal he'd put Shizu-chan and the rest of Raira Academy through. The quiet atmosphere allowed him to focus and he was so deep in thought, he nearly got a heart attack when he realized that a child was staring him in the eyes with their faces near millimeters apart.

The kid's concentrated expression turned into a huge grin. "I almost thought you were a statue, but I guess you look too real to be one!" He exclaimed before tilting his head and thinking hard, his grin vanishing. "What're you doing at my house?"

Izaya smirked at the kid. "I'm your parents' friends' son. And we were visiting." Mikado's expression scrunched up as he tried to make sense of the relation between the stranger and his family. It took him awhile, but he seemed to get it. It lifted Izaya's mood tremendously.

"What're you doing out here then?" Mikado's dark blue eyes reflected his puzzlement as he continued staring at him.

"Well, what are _you_ doing out here?" Izaya countered and was satisfied when the kid seemed to ponder that deeply.

"I was looking at the rice fields!" He then said, as it came back to him.

"The rice fields?" Izaya scoffed. "What's so interesting about them?" Really, the kid was cute. Almost as cute as his sisters, even though he was currently pouting at having been told that the rice fields were not as interesting as he thought they were.

"They're pretty! And they look like the sky!" He said and then sat down next to Izaya, peering at him curiously. Said boy only snorted lightly and averted his gaze, hoping to become uninteresting enough that the boy would leave him alone. But he didn't really have much hope of that. The kid liked staring at rice fields for God's sake.

"Why do you look so sad?" Izaya turned his head abruptly to look at the kid who was staring back intensely. He probably didn't know it was rude to stare. The teen pushed his palm against Mikado's face to get him to look somewhere else.

"It's rude to stare, you know?" He was surprised when the kid actually looked embarrassed and turned to look at the ground instead. "I'm bored, that's all."

"Oh." Was all he received in reply as his companion picked up a smooth pebble and touched it all over.

"So you don't like rice fields?" Mikado ventured to ask after an awkward silence had settled between them.

"No."

"Oh." Out of the corners of his eyes, Izaya watched as Mikado used the pebble to scratch a rough drawing of a rice field into the ground. "What do you like then?"

"Humans." Izaya replied easily. That was his one and only pastime after all.

"Humans?" Mikado tilted his head and looked up into brown eyes that were watching him and ignored the smirk that would freak most adults out if they'd caught Izaya staring at them.

"Yeah, humans are fun, unlike rice fields. They're always feeling something, reacting to something, believing in something!" Izaya spread his hands out and stared into the distance although his mind travelled much further, all the way back to Ikebukuro.

"Humans are wonderful! I love seeing all their different emotions! All the different kinds of faces they make! All the different kinds of conclusions they jump to!" All throughout his speech Mikado gazed at him in amazement, soaking in each and every word. Izaya thought he might start liking the kid.

"You should come to Ikebukuro when you're older! You'll meet a lot of interesting people!" Wide blue eyes gazed up at the older of the two who had jumped to his feet, filled with slightly crazed delight at the thought of every individual's uniqueness.

"Better than the rice fields?" The teen resisted the urge to shake his head in exasperation.

"... Yeah better than the rice fields." Mikado beamed so brightly at him, it looked like his eyes were sparkling. Something undeniable sparked behind those innocent eyes, something akin to excitement at a new found interest. He was sure it would grow given enough time.

This trip to the countryside had surely been worth it. Izaya was sure that when the time came, he would be able to see something amazing unfold in his beloved city.

Time ticked by idly as their reunion crept closer and closer.

Three years until Mikado was utterly bored with the monotonous countryside.

Five years until Masaomi, Mikado's best friend, moved to Ikebukuro, secretly influenced by none other than the sneaky information broker to be.

Another half year from there before Mikado was fascinated with the sides on people he found online.

Six years in total for the Dollars to be born to a teenager who had no clue of the influence he would wield.

Seven years until Dollars belonged to him alone.

Ten years until their fated meeting, the younger having long forgotten why the older's face seemed so familiar.

And all the while the counter on the Dollars homepage indicating the number of members crawled higher and higher, like a countdown ticking in the wrong direction.

Izaya smirked. He couldn't wait to play.


End file.
